The Claude Binyon Papers, 1932-1963, are arranged in five series: a subject file, motion pictures-produced, motion pictures-unproduced, theater, and television.
The SUBJECT FILE includes clippings, correspondence, contracts, miscellany, a club roster, scrapbooks, and writings plus files on the Army-Navy Screen Magazine and the Screen Writers Guild. It is arranged alphabetically by folder title and chronologically thereunder. Among the materials are advertisements for the Army-Navy Screen Magazine; miscellaneous correspondence documenting his Army career and the films Sing You Sinners, The Gauntlet, and The Dream Boat, plus a letter detailing general guidelines and specific words that censor boards would be likely to cut from films; general contracts between Binyon and the studios for which he worked; clippings on the productions with which he was involved and on activities in Hollywood and with the Screen Writers Guild; and two scrapbooks, the bulk of which are composed of clippings and reviews, plus miscellaneous photos and correspondence. The scrapbooks concern Accent On Youth, The Bride Comes Home, College Humor, The Daring Young Man, Gambling Ship, Gilded Lily, Girl Without a Room, If I Had a Million, Ladies Should Listen, Many Happy Returns, Mississippi, Search for Beauty, Shoot the Works, The Stooge (a play), and The Way to Love. There are also clippings on Binyon's race horse, “Virginia Mac,” which has the distinction of being denied the winning purse in a race because it was officially listed as “dead.”
The remaining four series are production files relating to the particular genre in which Binyon worked--motion pictures, theater, and television. These files include outlines, notes, treatments, dialogue continuities, scripts, revisions, shooting schedules, sheet music and lyrics, cast and character lists, certificates of authorship, agreements, contracts, clippings, reviews, and advertisements. They are arranged alphabetically by production title with supporting documentation filed chronologically thereunder. The documentation varies from production to production, sometimes covering the movie from conception to release, other times being fragmentary.
The MOTION PICTURE files, the largest series in the collection (Boxes 2-13), have been subdivided into PRODUCED and UNPRODUCED works. Among the produced films are Arizona, College Humor, Dream Boat, Holiday Inn, Incendiary Blonde, Shoot The Works, Take a Letter, Darling, True Confessions, and You Belong to Me. A complete alphabetical listing can be found in the box list below. The arrangement of the unproduced motion pictures is also alphabetical by production title, but the researcher is cautioned that many films undergo title changes during production; it is possible that some of the motion pictures filed as unproduced were in reality produced under different names.
Because the THEATER and TELEVISION series are small, the produced and unproduced works under each file have been combined and listed alphabetically. The THEATER file includes A Soft Touch, The Stooge, and Sweet Surrender. The Television file contains materials on such programs as Alcoa Premiere, Screen Directors' Playhouse, U.S. Steel Hour; Young MacDonald, and Zorro.
